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PASTOR GENERAL'S REPORT, JULY 26, 1985
PAGE 13
the continent. It's just that in South Africa, the ruling minority is a
very visible one. Yet this highly visible minority is absolutely essential
for the well-being of much of the continent. "We are doing business with 48
of those states. We help create wealth," said Mr. Wessels.
l..,-,eonservative Party member S.P. Barnard, representing the Langlaata district
/ in Johannesburg, added that he noted that the demonstrators in the
townships, as shown on television, are always well-dressed and well-fed-
unlike the appalling situation in Marxist Ethiopia. In the last five
years, he said, South Africa has undergone its worst drought in history.
Yet, there has been no lack of food for its people.
Why? he asked, adding that many African countries are "dying on their
feet." A major problem, he emphasized, was not the weather, but planning
--planning the infrastructure of the country, planning to save good har
vests to balance the bad harvests of the future. As many other development
experts have noted, the concept of planning for the future is not central to
the thinking of most black Africans. Mr. Barnard urged outsiders to go slow
with their demands for rapid change in his country. "Don't tamper with the
clock of Africa," he said. Yet, this morning's paper states that the U.S.
will pressure South Africa to quicken the pace of reform.
During the time I spent with these officials, I was struck by the good will
and overall good sense they exhibited.
Corning from a diversity of
backgrounds, they all showed a genuine desire for harmony and progress.
But internal security was uppermost on their minds, as it should be with
anyone entrusted with maintaining public order.
Mr. Wessels said that
while he and his party {the Nationalists) are "firmly committed to change"
to "accommodate the aspirations of all people," and to address what he
adrnitted was still a "vast number of [black] grievances," the government
must at the same time "instill a feeli�g of security for all groups." This
is especially critical, because in South Africa there exists, he empha
sized,� tremendous "conflict potential not only amongst blacks and whites
but amongst blacks and blacks."
This "conflict potential" has been exhibited, on a small scale, in the
township unrest. Even Nobel-laureate Bishop Desmond Tutu recognizes this.
Referring to the televised picture of the burning woman, he said: "When
that woman was shown being burned to death, it was shown around the world
and the world is full of people who support us. And when those people saw
this they said, 'If these people are doing things like this, maybe they are
not ready for freedom.'"
The basic issue comes down to this: Will change come about through coopera
tion, or confrontation? The men I talked to are willing, regardless of
background, to patiently work out their sizeable differences. And they ask
only one thing, in Mr. Wessel's words: "Allow us to solve our problems our
selves." This is what the revolutionaries are afraid of. Moscow will be
pushing awfully hard, even more so now as U.S. and European policies
unwittingly fall in line with their own.
Even despite reforms, the social and economic gaps between white and black
societies in Africa will remain vast.
Assemblyman Barnard said that
unfortunately not nearly enough blacks study engineering and related sub
jects in the universities; they go in more for the professions and the
social sciences. Their inte;ests and talents seem to lie more in these